Authors, editors, and creators are listed at the beginning of the citation with the last name first, followed by the first initial and the middle initial. If no middle initial is provided, then leave it out. The first and middle initial should each have a period, and there should be a space between them.
Last, F. M.
If the name of an author, editor, or creator is listed in the middle of the citation (such as with the "Book with An Editor and an Author" example), then the first and middle initial are first, followed by the last name.
(F. M. Last, Ed.).
Multiple authors are listed with commas in between them, even if there are only two. The last two authors have an ampersand (&) between them.
Last, F. M., & Last, F. M.
There is more information about citing authors on the Purdue OWL APA Guide.
Titles of books are italicized and in sentence case. Titles of articles are not italicized and in sentence case. Titles of journals (or periodicals) are italicized and in title case.
This is a title of a book.
This is a title of an article.
This is a Title of a Journal.
Subtitles occur after colons or dashes; use whichever one the source uses. The first word of the subtitle is capitalized. Some sources do not have subtitles.
This is an article title: With a subtitle.
Each major portion of the citation should end with a period. The end of the citation should also have a period, unless the citation ends with a URL or a DOI. Use the examples below to guide you in your use of punctuation in your citations.
The reference citation examples below are provided to demonstrate the various citation rules in APA (7th edition) style. You may not find a citation that matches your source exactly. For example, you may have a 5th edition textbook with three authors and an editor that you need to cite. You can mix the corresponding portions of the examples for "A Book with Three to Twenty Authors", "A Book with an Editor and an Author", and "Edition Other Than the First" to get the right citation format for the particular book you have in hand.
For books, citation information is contained in three main places: the cover, the title page, and the back of the title page.
Click on the type of source below to see the correct citation example. Plug in the information for your book using the formatting in these examples. Pay special attention to capitalization, punctuation, and italicization.
Note: You can use the author portions of these examples as guidance for citing Journal Articles or Web Resources with multiple authors.
A Book with Three to Twenty Authors
A Book with More Than Twenty Authors
A Book with an Editor and No Author
After the title of the journal, use a comma followed by the volume number and the issue number. The volume number is italicized and the issue number with parentheses is not. There is no space between them.
This is a Journal Title, 43(2)
For newspaper articles or any type of publication that is published very frequently, use the month and the day in addition to the year. Spell out the whole month (don't use an abbreviation).
(xxxx, Month XX)
For articles, the citation information is usually found on the details page for the article in the database where you found the article. Some articles also list the citation information on the article itself.
For scholarly articles, it is preferred that you use a DOI whenever possible. Almost all scholarly articles have a DOI (Digital Object Identifier). If you cannot find it, you can use this website to look up the DOI for your article. A DOI number can be transformed into a DOI link by visiting doi.org. DOI links are very useful because they never break and will always lead the user to the correct resource on the web for that article.
For popular articles (newspapers, magazines, trade journals), use the URL (web address). If you are using a library database, it is not necessary to include the URL (unless you are using CQ Researcher, ERIC, or UpToDate).
See the Frequently Asked Questions tab for situations in which you cannot find all of the information you need to cite.
Click on the type of source below to see the correct citation example. Plug in the information for your journal article using the formatting in these examples. Pay special attention to capitalization, punctuation, and italicization.
An Article from a Scholarly Journal Retrieved from a Library Database
An Article from a Newspaper Retrieved from a Library Database (or In Print)
An Article from a Magazine Retrieved from a Library Database (or In Print)
Web resources are really tricky sometimes, but you can usually use the clues provided to determine whether the website is an online magazine, online newspaper, a blog, or just a general website.
For more information about citing sources on the web, visit the Purdue OWL APA Guide.
See the Frequently Asked Questions tab for situations in which you cannot find all of the information you need to cite.
Click on the type of source below to see the correct citation example. Plug in the information for your web resource using the formatting in these examples. Pay special attention to capitalization, punctuation, and italicization.
Newspaper Article found on the web
Magazine Article found on the web
